Changing jobs can mean changing pensions. The more jobs you’ve had, the bigger the chance you have some forgotten pensions.
Do you change jobs frequently? Why you could have forgotten money waiting for you to find it!
Forgotten Pensions
There’s no better feeling than finding a fiver in a jacket you haven’t worn in ages. Or discovering some loose change down the back of the sofa! So, imagine if you could experience this feeling 10-fold by finding your forgotten pension pots.
With a massive 55% of millennials switching jobs after less than just a year, and almost a third of professionals set to have more than ten jobs in their lifetime*, it’s no wonder many of us are set to have multiple pension pots we don’t even know about.
Pensions advice specialist, Portafina, have given their top tips to discover whether you too could have forgotten pensions.
Which Jobs Did You Have Pensions With?
The first step to locating your funds is figuring out which jobs you had pensions with. For those who have had their fair share of job changes, this might not be the most fun task in the world, but you’ll thank your former self when you’re 70 years young on a yacht in the Bahamas.
If you can’t think which jobs you had pensions with, it’s worth getting in touch with your former employers to find out. It’s unlikely you have a pension pot with the newsagents you worked at when you were 17, but it could be worth checking.
Don’t forget, auto-enrolment has been staggered since 2012
Auto-enrolment was introduced in October 2012 in stages, giving employers the responsibility to enrol their workers into the company’s pension scheme. Before the time of auto-enrolment, pensions were an opt-in only scheme meaning unless you applied, you may not have had a pension before that. But fear not, if you’re over 22 and earning £10,000 p.a, you’ll now be enrolled in your company’s scheme automatically, so you can start saving for that lavish retirement you’ve always dreamed of.
Contact Pension Holders or Pensions Specialist
Once you’ve tracked down the employers you’ve held a pension with, get in touch with your pension providers and claim your fortune. From here, you can either leave your pension pots as they are, or consolidate them into once place for ease. If you don’t fancy doing it yourself, you can always start your life of relaxation early and work with a pensions specialist, who can do the hard work on your behalf.
Pensions are a great way to save money so put in as much as possible!
Whether you’re lucky enough to uncover a secret stash of cash or not, pensions are a great way to save money for the future. A huge perk of your pension is that your employer has to contribute too**, which is essentially free money.
Every time you pay into your pension you get tax relief. If you’re a basic-rate tax payer, when you contribute to your pension the government adds back the 20% that they usually take from your earnings. Saving into a pension also means you can benefit from compound interest. This means that the interest you save on your money earns interest itself. In summary, paying into your pension means more money for your buck, and who wouldn’t want that?
If you make the most of this and the tax relief in your pension, it could mean the difference between just getting by in the future and having a multitude of opportunities. You can find out more about tax relief here and compound interest here.
To read more about why you could have forgotten pensions or more savings than you think, head to https://www.portafina.co.uk/blog/why-you-could-have-more-savings-than-you-think
*Aged 25-30
*A survey of 1,200 professionals by CV Library in August 2017
***If you earn more than £503 a month
